During a meeting, the authorities considered that Bitcoin does not have all the necessary to be recognized as real money.
Representatives of the Central Bank of England held a private web meeting where they discussed the pros and cons of issuing a national digital currency. The meeting is possible after the bank issued a statement, a few days ago, related to the issue of digital currencies created by the authorities of the countries.
The debate sought to take into consideration the use of these types of assets for the national economy, taking into account the benefits and negative points of including these digital assets in the conventional financial system.
Although the representatives of the bank mentioned the use of technologies and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, they are not entirely convinced that using these digital assets is good for the economy. During the meeting held on April 7th, the authorities took into account the idea of creating a national digital currency. They agreed that if they take this decision, it should not be anonymous.
In the executive meeting participated experts in areas related to digital technologies such as Tom Mutton, Director of Fintech; Ben Dyson, leader of National Digital Currencies and Cryptoactive; and Manisha Patel, Senior Analyst of the Cryptocurrency team.
Dyson gave one of the most important comments of the meeting. He argued that the use of these national digital assets should be subject to a set of laws and regulations which preserve privacy. Users of these digital systems should be aware of whom they share personal information with and how often they do so. Therefore, the use of national digital currencies should not be anonymous.
Furthermore, Dyson said that people should not consider cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and other similar assets as real money. On the other hand, he defended other payment systems and digital assets of a different nature that may well work better than the renowned cryptocurrency.
The expert in national digital currencies accompanied his opinion remembering that for the possible issuance of National Digital Currencies it is good to consider the support of private startup companies to make this possible.
Although Ben Dyson considered that the support of private companies is important, he also clarified that these companies should not have full control in the creation of these national currencies. Dyson explained that there must be a level of supervision to ensure that common errors in the issue of these digital assets are avoided.
In this way, the public sector must be present to develop what best suits customers and users. “We have been thinking about how the systems will be, the payment systems we will need in the future, and what they will be. We have a great motivation to do all this right now”, Dyson said.
On the other hand, Tom Mutton commented that cryptocurrencies do not have what it takes to be considered as real money. Nevertheless, he said it would be important to use stablecoins in the future. He thinks stablecoins could be useful in the future, although these stable currencies must comply with certain modifications to adapt to the financial system.
On the other hand, Mutton recognized that cryptocurrencies do not pose a risk to England’s financial system, but that it could be different for Investors who take these technologies into account. Although its position is still contrary to cryptocurrencies.
Using stablecoins would benefit large markets and supply chains in a not specifically established future. All of this, although Central Bank of England representatives highlighted that they would implement these national digital currencies only in retail markets.
In conclusion, the representatives of the bank highlighted that the Central Bank of England is interested in investigating further the use of National Digital Currencies. These experts are also interested in investigating the role that these digital currencies may have when competing with other similar projects such as Libra, the cryptocurrency of the social media giant Facebook.
By María Rodríguez
